But there is a deeper connection between this kind of French made-at-home exoticism and the domestic charm of Babar — between, if you like, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Henri Rousseau, between the idea of the native genius of children and a romantic vision of Africa.
But there is a deeper connection between this kind of French made-at-home exoticism and the domestic charm of Babar between, if you like, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Henri Rousseau, between the idea of the native genius of children and a romantic vision of Africa.
First, there's the native genius for this sport.
It has a certain dignified repose, but the exterior and the floor plans give no hint of the native genius his admirers often attribute to him.
The native genius lies in the language, and he traces both well and enjoyably the survival, despite the assault of Latinisms and baroqueries from the 16th century onwards, of the plangent alliterative line of the Anglo-Saxons.
And a year later, in "The Lion and the Unicorn," "It is only by revolution that the native genius of the English people can be set free.... Whether it happens with or without bloodshed is largely an accident of time and place".
There is more of the fire of native genius in it than in half a dozen of modern English Bacchanalians.' Was this sly praise of himself?
The other was the unpredictable eruption of a native genius, Gioachino Rossini, who became the centre of Italian operatic life until he retired to Paris in the mid-1820s, where he finished his years as an international celebrity.
Glasgow's native genius, Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928), designed the great four-level interior in beaten metal, stained glass, soaring tulip shapes, polished wood and cast iron.
Marcus Claudius Marcellus displayed his uncouth Roman side by killing the native Greek genius Archimedes, whose defensive stratagems and machines had made the siege a prolonged one.
